title: A full ellipsometric approach to optical sensing with Bloch surface waves on photonic crystals.
abstract: We report on the investigation on the resolution of optical sensors exploiting Bloch surface waves sustained by one dimensional photonic crystals. A figure of merit is introduced to quantitatively assess the performance of such sensors and its dependency on the geometry and materials of the photonic crystal. We show that the figure of merit and the resolution can be improved by adopting a full ellipsometric phase-sensitive approach. The theoretical predictions are confirmed by experiments in which, for the first time, such type of sensors are operated in the full ellipsometric scheme.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sinibaldi
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rizzo
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Figliozzi
authors.forename: Emiliano
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Descrovi
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Danz
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Munzert
authors.forename: Aleksei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anopchenko
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Michelotti